For environment, no throw-away containers

Published February 20. 2014 4:00AM

Scott Dombrowski Storrs

Publication: The Day

Everyone knows that many bottles and cans come with a five-cent deposit that can be redeemed through recycling. Most people do not seem to know, though, that a significant portion of our beverage containers are not covered by the current legislation.

The recycling laws in Connecticut seem to be pretty popular. As a student at the University of Connecticut, I collected petitions to update the original "Bottle Bill," which was passed in 1980 and covered the common types of beverages at the time: soda and beer. There was an update to the law in 2009 that introduced water bottles to the program, but it still neglects to include bottles for juice drinks, sports drinks, and teas.

Everyone I talked to was in support of the updated bill, but most people were uninformed about this issue beforehand. Nobody seemed to know drinks like Gatorade did not have the five-cent deposit. This is important because containers with the deposit are recycled 70 percent of the time, while only 25 percent of other bottles are recycled. The public needs to be aware about this need to update the law. It will improve our recycling laws, which will, in turn, improve our environment.